To The Editor:
As a 1968 graduate of SJU College of Business Administration, I had a nostalgic visit to the Jamaica campus on Wednesday, January 18th, attending 12:30pm Mass in the beautiful new chapel, meeting with Fr. Whelan in the Theology Department, and introducing myself to the undergraduate brothers of my fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau.
†I was so impressed with the campus, faculty, staff, and student body that I began to think for the first time that perhaps my 16-year-old son should consider applying to St. John’s University. That is, until I picked up a copy of The Torch and was greeted with the headline: “Would you want St. John’s University to host the “The Vagina Monologues?”† As an alumnus of SJU, my response is an emphatic “NO!”
My son Michael attended Our Lady of the Hamptons and is now a sophomore at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, NY. It has always been important to his parents that he has a solid Catholic education before going out into a secular world that has become increasingly more materialistic and without a moral compass.
†Years ago, Michael told me that he wanted to attend Notre Dame University after seeing the movie “Rudy.”† In recent years, Notre Dame’s administration has been embroiled in controversy with its alumni and other opponents because of its decision to annually host “The V-Monolgues” at the South Bend campus as well as to allow a Gay Film Festival on campus.
No doubt, this decision has caused irrevocable damage to Notre Dame and other Catholic colleges and universities who permitted “The V-Monologues” on campus.† By ignoring alumni complaints, these schools have lost millions in alumni contributions as well as the the sons and daughters of alumni, who are interested in a truly Catholic education for their children. After the recently appointed President of Notre Dame vacillated on what appeared to be his previous decision not to permit “The V-Monologues” on campus, I made a decision that Michael would not be applying to Notre Dame University.
The Torch’s articles and editorial are clearly slanted in favor of permitting “The V-Monologues” on campus and I am not surprised. Student journalists have a tendency to emulate the political correctness and libertarian leanings of their mentors in the national secular media. As an undergraduate I was probably as liberal. As these student journalists mature and experience life, they too shall adopt more conservative values.
To allow this†”feminist empowerment”†play to dress itself up as “an effort to combat violence against women” is equivalent to permitting Planned Parenthood to claim that it is really interested in child care when, in fact, it is the largest provider of abortion facilities in the United States.
We live in a free and increasingly more secular country and there are plenty of locations that are willing to show off “The V-Monologues.” Since senior student/ promoter Alisha Brizicky is well aware that she can find an off-campus venue, why does she insist on forcing this “divisive and polarizing” obscenity on the administration, faculty, and students of St. John’s?†
St. John’s is a Catholic university! A truly Catholic university will not permit this play on campus!
†
Ned Dougherty
St. John’s University
College of Business Administration
Class of 1968
